Merzbow's Dust Of Dreams is another bludgeoning record of scalding noise for all of those raw nerve endings that need to be damaged just a little bit more. Compared to the almost jubilantly rhythmic Senmaida (one of many Merzbow records alongside this one to hit the stores in the early fall of 2005), Dust Of Dreams is a far more dour recording, with the rasping haze of mechanical wasps constantly swarming above seasick marching rhythms. If you've always been confused when Merzbow is pegged as being psychedelic, Dust Of Dreams will only perpetuate that confusion as the kaleidoscopes of swirling noise are of a leaden grey, as opposed to dozens of other Merzbow records which explode with a molten synaesthesia of nauseating flourescence. Nonetheless, Dust Of Dreams is still miles above almost every other recording of the globe's massive population of Merzbow wannabes.
I really don't need to listen to any more Merzbow records in my life, as several years back I (Jim) took the task of enduring the entire Merzbox (all 50 CDs of monstrous, punishing noise.) Yet month after month, Masami Akita continues to churn out extraordinary records from his battery of noise machines. With the roll of the die cast in my direction, I strap myself in for some raw aural brutality. Senmaida stands out immediately with its galloping drum machine breakbeat that precedes the virulant boils of his signature seering noise, giving Merzbow a legitimate noise grooviness previously held by Christine 23 Onna and Aufgehoben No Process. The beat itself starts out a little stiff, which is not surprising as Akita-san is not really known to get down and boogie; but when the noise machines begin to explode with their volcanic psychedelia of molten noise, the breakbeat takes a step back and actually forms an excellent counterpoint to the noise. Out of this rhythm (which come to think of it really does sound like a Garage Band preset, ha!), our noise hero lays down several lumbering industrial loops of a percolated squiggle alternated with a menacing plod, out of which comes the shredding noise and a post-Neubauten metal bashed rhythm. And oh, yeah there's a track built out of a sample of a sheep's bleating which oozes with the danse macabre of Alec Empire. Be prepared to be impressed by Senmaida!
You might've heard of this Canadian band 'cuz of their ties to Broken Social Scene (Haines is a member), but as we've mentioned before they're nothing like that Northern indie rock dynamo (although from the sounds of the 'Scene's latest self-titled album they might be moving more in the direction of Metric - some kind of metric conversion? hahaha!). However, if you're not yet familiar with Metric, imagine a 'modern day' incarnation of punchy crunchy girl fronted pop bands such as Veruca Salt, Elastica and maybe even Transvision Vamp. Frontwoman/keyboardist Emily Haines' saucy, cooed vocals alternate between coy'n'girlish and world-weary'n'womanly. Apart from the very last year electro-clash-y coverart, this is a great follow-up to last year's Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
Another cd-r release from Heart and Crossbone, the label that brought us records from Israeli blackened spazz rock duo Barbara and one man thrash-grind band Cadaver Eyes (reviewed elsewhere on this list). This Mildew cd-r is a bit high concept. The idea is that you download a script and the piece will play at random pre-determined starting points, making the songs a bit different every time. Or something like that. Cool, huh? Musically this is a lot different that anything we've yet heard from Heart and Crossbone. All electronic, spastic programmed drums, squelching synths, occasional sampled metal guitars, jagged pounding industrial rhythms, moaning minor key melodies, brief spurts of drill and bass, some full on metal riffing sliced and diced, martial percussion, some blissed out dubbiness. Really cool. Definitely for fans of Aphex Twin, stuff on Planet Mu, or any of the more out there electronic stuff on the Jester label.
As some of you already probably know, this limited 12" is a split release on both NYC based post rock label Temprorary Residence, and now-L.A. based thinking man's metal label Hydra Head. Accordingly there are about 7 or 8 different versions, some on Hydra Head, some on TRL, some with different colored labels, but you know what? That's just tough. We have to draw the line somewhere, and it's now right here. We have about 30 copies of the Temporary Residence version, which is already out of print. When we run out of these, we might get some of the HH version(s). Not sure which ones. This collectable vinyl business is beginning to obscure the whole reason we all buy records, because we love music, and we love to hear amazing music, and this record is absolutely fantastic. So try to stop worrying about the color of the vinyl or the number pressed or any of that stuff and just pick this up because it's so damn beautiful. Pelican deliver a massive slice of gorgeously grandiose post rock, sweeping and emotional, melancholy and but weirdly hopeful with its minor key arrangement. Not a trace of 'metal' to be found here. Which is fine by us. Imagine a slightly heavier version of the song that plays during the final scene at the end of the movie, after the boy has gotten the girl and we finally realize everything is going to be okay. It sounds a little like that. Really beautiful. The second track makes up for it though, as James Plotkin (Khanate, Joy of Disease) takes Pelican at their dirgiest / sludgiest and adds tons of extra grind and grit and grrr and effects and crumbling distortion and malfunctioning electronics. Like your favorite Pelican song dipped in blood and rolled in the dirt. Wow.
Mono, who are often touted as being metal, stick closer to their mighty epic post rock sound with a sidelong track that is as Godspeed You Black Emperor as a non-Godspeed band is likely to get. Brooding and melancholy, building to a huge explosive coda, before drifting back into a creeping maudlin dirge, that sort of drifts and fades into the dark. So nice. And as we mentioned before, far too limited.
Meet the new kids on the block at this Canadian label home to Broken Social Scene and their Torontonian kin Apostle Of Hustle and Stars. The Most Serene Republic are just a hop, skip and a jump away, based in the small town of Milton on the western outskirts of the greater Toronto area. Due to the bands' proximity both geographically and label-wise, comparisons are definitely gonna flourish, and what can we say? They aren't unfounded. Once you hear Underwater Cinematographer, we're sure you'll agree. In many ways The Most Serene Republic's music does resemble the rest of the Arts & Crafts' roster, but with lead vocals that also remind us of Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie/Postal Service. This is not a bad thing! No, drawing from such an exuberant mish mash of influences and styles, their album fits in well between You Forgot It In People and Set Yourself On Fire. Actually with their subtle eccentricities scurrying out here and there, The Most Serene Republic's music brings to mind BSS and Frog Eyes having a low-key get-together... which is a mighty pleasing thought, indeed.
On their latest, already very warmly received full length Z, My Morning Jacket have fallen even closer in line with the David Fridmann produced grand pop theatrics of groups such as Flaming Lips, Sparklehorse and Mercury Rev. Their sound has become more sumptuous and far less distinctly 'rock' or 'country' than on their past releases, almost as though they'd set a soft focus lens on the proceedings. Still very shadowy and deeply melancholic though. Although John Leckie and MMJ's mainman Jim James have done a fine job mixing and producing these ten songs, it's hard not to try imagining what they'd sound like with Fridmann in the producer's seat. Beautiful!
Ooooh. The fifth self-titled album of achingly melodic, wide-open spaces atmospheric, instrumental music from Sweden's Bjorn Olsson is here! And that makes us very very happy, although we must admit that what we've come to call his "seafood series" sure is confusing, and not just 'cause (aside from the cover art) we have any idea what it has to do with seafood. Probably nothing. However, each of his last four albums so far, including this one, have had some manner of delicous sea-creature depicted on the cover. Apparently this one's lobster, but y'see we thought that the second disc in the series was lobster. Turns out that was actually crawfish. Duh! Make a note of it. So, after shrimp, crawfish and crab comes lobster. Don't care for seafood? Well what about pasta? 'Cause it's Spaghetti Westerns that this music most reminds us of... 'Cause as you may know, soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone is definitely one of the most obvious influences on Bjorn Olsson, and he brilliantly recreates the Morricone sound here, including bringing back the wonderful whistling that we so loved on the disc that we now know as Olsson's self-titled (crawfish) album. Along with that haunting whistling, this moody high plains drifter music has got all the hallmarks of a Morricone composition: lonesome acoustic guitar, snappy militaristic snare, and the elegiac hum of a wordless choir. You can definitely imagine Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef squaring off to a soundtrack like this, cigars clenched in teeth, sun beating down, dust and desperation heavy in the air. Which is to say, it's goddamn gorgeous. There's eight tracks, the eighth being almost one full hour in length, incorporating and expanding upon melodies visited earlier in the disc, much in the manner of a soundtrack, where themes are often reprised. Compared to Olsson's last album, the one with the crab on the cover, this is much less gritty and lo-fi, and without the hints of '60s psych-rock guitar. But no less recommended. Is this the best Bjorn yet? Andee, for one, thinks so. Of course, we do like 'em all... this one, though, may be the cleanest sounding, and perhaps the most Morricone.
Queen Adreena is everything PJ Harvey should have been. Could have been. And sort of was, for a brief spell there. Groundbreaking, threatening, inspiring, empowering, controversial. Unfortunately for us Americans, Queen Adreena has remained a barely heard, mostly unattainable, always incredibly expensive mystery, until now. Imagine PJ Harvey, if she were a filthy, waifish, sexed up firebrand, with a mop of tangled blonde curls and dressed in tattered doll like dresses, with a voice that swings from a sultry croon to a glass shattering Bjorkish squeal to a raspy wail, all in a single line, fronting a motley groop spitting out a pill popping, gas huffing, crazily chaotic, swaggering, smoldering sexrock with LOUD fuzz guitars pounding tribal drumming and wild and unhinged and insanely sexy vocals. Some sort of bastard spawn of PJ Harvey, Bow Wow Wow, Kate Bush, heavy metal and seventies glam rock. Lots of grinding guitars, breathy breakdowns, slithering seedy sexiness, and some unbeleivably killer songs. Often maligned as the "sleaze-metal PJ Harvey" in the UK press, but that's actually a pretty darn good description if you ask us. And if someone told us about some band that sounded like that we'd be all over it in a second. This is one of those records we've been listening to so much it's hard to put into words exactly what it is about it that drive us so crazy. Just listen to the sound samples and you'll immediately hear how ferocious and fucking amazing this record is.
Whether or not they actually plan it that way, Quintron albums seem to have a habit of materializing just in time for Halloween. You might recall The Frog Tape CD reissue around this time last year. Those very vocal froggie made for some unexpectedly great spooky party sounds! This album's maybe less creepy and strange than that, but it sure ain't short on the party side of things. Heck, that's something you can always count on from Quintron & Miss Pussycat! Totally frantic lo-fi madness! Eagle-eared Andee thought that the eighth song sounded like a Kiss song, and indeed it is! Quintron covers "God Of Thunder", and what signals party more than a Kiss song? Quintron lets loose a medusa head of cheez-organ noodles while the organ's internal drum machine keeps tickety-tock time and the duo sings songs like "Swamp Buggy Baddass", "Love Is Like A Blob", Fly Like A Rat" and oh yes, "Tea Time".
And lest we forget, this CD comes with a DVD too! The liner notes kindly offer this synopsis... "An alligator from New Orleans named Cinnamon finds herself cursed with formosan termites (voiced by Disco Donny) after they visit her sno-ball stand. Then Cinnamon and her friend Lolly Crawfish are on an adventure... aboard a ship with Captain Dreamweaver, visiting the Mother-In-Law Lounge to see Ernie & Antoinette K-Doe (voiced by the real Mre. K-Doe), and even sneaking into the secret world of termite raves! Written and directed by Miss Pussycat". And yes, it is as gleefully entertaining as that sounds!
The Bottrop -Boy label has been releasing ultra limited musician / artist collaborations in a series called EN/OF. Participants have included Ekkehard Ehlers, Heimir Bjorgulfsson, Stephan Mathieu, Jan Jelinek, TV Pow, the Rip-Off Artist, Tarentel, Pan American, David Grubbs, Nobukazu Takemura, Steve Roden, Merzbow, Tim Hecker, Jazzkammer, His Name Is Alive and Akira Rabelais. Each one teamed up with a photographer, and the result is a vinyl 12", signed and numbered, featuring original music, and an original photgraph, limited to 100 copies and ridiculously expensive. So expensive and limited in fact that we have yet to actually get any of these. However, AQ pal Akira Rabelais, got a dozen copies of his 12", minus the artowrk, the 12" ONLY, no photo, or fancy sleeve, just the 12" (pressed on ultra thick vinyl) in a plain black sleeve signed by Rabelais in silver marker. And he nicely allowed us to have all 12 to sell to folks who can't afford or weren't quick enough to get one of those 100 copies. And it's all about the music anyway right? And the music here is awesome. Side A is an Austin radio station blasting some sort of Tex Mex, that is quickly subsumed by radio static and is slowly smeared into a warm fuzzy whir, with minimal melodies, chirping crickets, haunting viola, all very dreamy and indistinct, like Jeck or Basinski. Side B features an L.A. radio station, already manipiulated beyond recognition, a fuzzy dreamscape of ahunting barely discernable melodies, chiming in the distance like ghosts, all over layers of white noise smoothed into a warm bed of static and crackle. Lovely. And yeah, it's still expensive, but hell, that's how much they cost us and it's limited to 12 COPIES!!!
A few weeks back we made Andy Votel's amazing mix of prog/funk/jazz/acid rock from the Vertigo vaults our Record Of The Week. Now we're reviewing this, a recently-reissued-on-cd Vertigo album from, ta-da, 1971 that (we don't think) made it onto Votel's disc, thereby demonstrating that even by cramming dozens of little snippets of songs into a mix, he certainly couldn't fully encompass everything awesome that was ever released on Vertigo! This one's not heavy rock, nor is it freaky jazz fusion. Rather, Ramases was a unique one-album-only obscurity playing a kind of mystical pop-prog. I guess it reminds us just a little bit of Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come albums. But it's definitely its own thing, as you might expect from a mysterious psychedelic visionary from South Africa who (perhaps) believed himself to be the reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh, who performed these Space Hymns together with his wife Sel, and the assistance of others, including production and guitar licks (and sitar and Moog) courtesy of 10cc's Godley and Creme. The results are really rather catchy and quite strange. Maybe what the second Comus album would have sounded like, if it was a lot better than it was!
This new reish in Repertoire's Vertigo series (we hope to bring you some other titles soon) is nicely deluxe, packaged in a gatefold digipack cd jacket, adorned with Roger Dean's great church steeple/rocketship cover art. It boasts four bonus tracks as well (alternate mixes and b-sides). Recommended if you want to check out some unclassifiable cult tuneage, weird and folkish and electronically Eno-arty, with sci-fi hippy themes perhaps worth puzzling over.
Hooooray! Here's the second album from Bay Area pop dreamies Rogue Wave. No sophomore slumps here. No way! Hearing Descended Like Vultures in many ways reminds me of hearing Death Cab For Cutie's first album Something About Airplanes for the first time. Descended Like Vultures is soft, sweet and immediately endearing with its melted ice cream boyish vocals and lush pop arrangements. Mainman Zach Rogue is one dandy songwriter and composer with an overflowing treasure chest of irresistibly dreamy hooks and melodies. Very reminiscent of The Beatles, Raspberries, Bread and the abovementioned Ben Gibbard and co. You can bet yer boots that popcraft as splendid as this certainly comes highly recommended!
The first thing that caught our eye when we saw the cover photo on this new Silver Jews album was the big ol' Canadian Club whiskey plaque on the barroom wall. And whad'ya know the first words we hear comin' out of singer David Berman's mouth in the lead-off song "Punks In The Beerlight" are, "Where's the paper bag that holds the liquor? Just in case I feel the need to puke." As Mischa aptly commented, "I think they have been drinking!" Ah, Tanglewood Numbers is filled with the stench of cigarette butts soakin' in ten day old beer. Miserable tales of hard livin' performed by a cast of indie rock superstars including Steve Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich, Bobby Bare Jr., Duane Denison, and Will Oldham.
Newly reissued! The four guys in Sloan have always had distinct songwriting styles, but the differences seem much more pronounced on 1998's Navy Blues. And its not as even a split of songs between the four this time -- although there's plenty of tunes penned by Chris Murphy and Patrick Pentland (both solo and in tandem), this album disappointingly has only two Jay Ferguson songs, but surprisingly three written and one co-written by the usually more elusive Andrew Scott. The overall sound though is still very Beatles and Big Star influenced, but filtered through '70s freewheelin' rock. Chris Murphy conjures the glammy rock flamboyance of Kiss on the album's lead-off track "She Says What She Means". Jay Ferguson follows that up with a drastically contrast in the shape of his candy-hued perky number "C'mon C'mon", then Patrick Pentland tumbles right in between the two with "Iggy & Angus" complete with Thin Lizzy sounding guitars. Andrew Scott shifts the band's gears into a more 'grown-up' (Chicago-ish?) feel with funky keyboards and horns... and that's all in the span of the first four songs!
Reissued 1993 debut from a fave band of ours! A brief synopsis of 'way back when': in grunge rock's heydays these then slightly grungey four Canadian lads got signed to Nirvana's label DGC. To put it mildly, back then their music butted heads with the grunge scene and with the label's expectations/demands, and continued to do so as time went on. Long story short, they got dropped from the label. Much to the chagrin of their non-Canadian fans and the misfortune of their potential new fans, this effectively putting a deadbolt on their stateside catalog... until now. Yes folks, it's time to restart you Sloan engines, and get 'em revvin' and rollin' all over again. This is *the* album which contains *the* stand-out song ("Underwhelmed") that started it all for these Canadian power pop/rock dynamos. The very Sonic Youth-y Smeared offers just a glimpse of the clever lyrical twists, fantastic pop hooks and harmonies that were to come.
Steven R. Smith's "Kohl" is a relative departure from his typical output of repeated motifs structuring a cinematic psychedelia; instead, Smith delves wholeheartedly into meandering improvisations for dreamy, echoplexed guitar not all that far from the impressionistic work of Loren Mazzacane Connors or The Dirty Three. Steven R. Smith is also, of course, a current member of the way-out psychedelic improvisers Thuja. The cd comes packaged with a beautiful booklet with illustrations, woodcuts, tiny packets of dirt and seeds. Quite beautiful. Only complaint: packaged awkwardly in an oversized plastic bag (well, you can't fit all that dirt and seed in a conventional jewel case). But don't let that deter you from picking up this lovely disc.
ATTENTION: the limited edition 2cd version of this is totally gone, this is the single disc version!
As you may have noticed, the aQ speakers have been quite clogged of late with the black sonic tar of glacial doom and slow motion sludge, molten flows of downtuned guitars, rumbling bowel churning drones, impossibly slow and primordially plodding drumming, all tangled up in huge squirming, blackened riffs, like mammoths struggling to loose themselves from pits of black tar. We've also been quite obsessed with the more virulent strains of buzzing, bizarre black metal. Leviathan, Xasthur, Benighted Leams, Blackdeath, Deathspell Omega, Furze, Lurker Of Chalice and the like. But just imagine for a moment, if that river of sludge we love so much ran right through the darkened Nordic forest, or if you took all that buzz and fuzz and held it under a thick layer of black pitch, while it struggled desperately for breath, or if you took the bombinating blur of Burzum and slowed it waaaaay doooooooown, or better yet, what if Dylan Carlson of Earth grew up listening to Darkthrone and Mayhem instead of Hendrix and the Mentors. Well you'd probably get something like Black One. To be honest, what forms the basis of Black One is really not all that different than other SUNNO))) records. It's still a series of 16 rpm metal riffs, morphed beautifully into plodding hypnotic smears of metallic ambience. The blackness here comes from several sources: the art and the imagery for one, a very metal looking cover drawing, olde English fonts, O'Malley and Anderson have adopted properly metal monickers for the instruments used: axe subs, icy inverted crosswinds upon four string zamboni, grail, glacial winds, calls from beyond the grave! Then there is the presence of two current BM legends, Malefic from Xasthur and Wrest from Leviathan. That said, there are moments, where SUNNO)))'s immediately recognizable sludge does twist itself into more black metal shapes, and it's those moments that Black One truly taps into a direct line to the fiery abyss. Imagine listening to Immortal through some sort of time warp, where Blizzard Beasts is stretched into a single icy contrail spread out over 666 years, a hazy black cloud swallowing everything in its path. Add some truly frosty and fucked up vocals and ghostly guitars from Wrest and Malefic, all manner of gorgeous sonic filigree from Australian experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi and noise guru John Weise, some text by Seldon Hunt, and that oh so familiar Sunn-y O'Malleyïartwork, lyrics via Dead (from Mayhem), Malefic, Wrest and Abbath (of Immortal) and you might just be looking at a truly and utterly black one indeed.
One day we got an email from one of our mailorder customers who mentioned he was currently listening to a band called Tenhornedbeast. Just the name had us frothing at the mouth. Then when we asked him what it sounded like, his response "epic sprawling primitive doom/drone" had us on the internet in seconds flat trying to track down copies for the store. Well, the good news is that we did manage to get some for the store. The bad news, as is often the case, is that it was incredibly limited, is already out of print, and we got the very last 20. So be prepared to be disappointed if you're not super quick on the buy button trigger.
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let's get to the heart of this beast. Tenhornedbeast, a band that does indeed traffic in an epic sprawling primitive doom / drone. The do have a drummer too, but he mostly offers up little cymbal flourishes here and there, a big snare splat every long once in a while, the meat of the beast though is obviously the churning squirm of downtuned guitars, riff upon riff, all dirty and scuzzy and lo-fi and gorgeously doomy and drone-y and dirge-y. That sound we can't seem to get enough of. And again, VERY LIMITED. WE HAVE 20 COPIES. ONCE THEY ARE GONE THEY ARE REALLY GONE FOR GOOD.
Latest issue of everyone's favorite UK modern music mag. On the cover, and covering many pages inside, a look at 60 cover songs, with indepth reviews by various Wire scribes. Also inside, Invisible Jukebox with Steve Reich, a chat with countrified doomsters Earth. Also Rolf Julius, Oren Marshall, Mazen Kerbaj, Jackson And His Computer Band and Alan Cummings takes a look at the birth of Japanese free music. Of course as usual. loads of book reviews, show reviews (Byron Coley reviews Arthurfest) and record reviews (inlcuding a page of outer limits reviews from our own Jim Haynes).
We're obviously not graphic designers, or even all that computer savvy considering it took us a little too long to get the band name joke (hint: it's a font, sort of). Anyway, this newest release on the always impeccable SIltbreeze comes in the form of this here crusty noisy blast of aggro garage scuzz. Maybe the best part is how they got signed to Siltbreeze. A found cassingle, lodged in some sort of street shrine discovered according to the label "on a street corner during our annual litter crusade. Inside the cassette's handmade case was scrawled 'This am band. Good band!' Next to that was a crude drawing of what appeared to be three people playing instruments. It smelled musty and had a real creepy, cultish vibe to it."
I mean, c'mon, how could it not be great? And it sounds exactly how you think it would after that sort of story. Straight from the gutter, to a practice space, some fried mics and a blown out 4-track, and then slapped on a cd. Fuzzy superdistorted guitars, wheezing blasts of organ, splattery drumming, shouted male female vocals, all buried in tape his and amp buzz. Mostly noisy and ramshackle and stumbling through a minefield of Dead C outtakes and broken GBV cassettes, but once in a while, like on "Skull Versus Wizard", they'll whip out a veritable pop gem, a little slice of Pavement, beaten and bloodied and rolled in the mud, but still a sparkling pop gem under all that grit. Speaking of "Skull Versus Wizard", they have other killer song titles too: "Lions And Oil", "Fuck Books", "Fashion To Talk About The Moon", "We Got Rocket" and more. At times it almost sounds like a not-annoying Kim Gordon fronting Gate or the Dead C while they try to record popular indie rock favorites. Fans of the Bunnybrains, Icky Boyfriends, Liquorball and grimey gritty scummy noise pop rejoice!
We've been huge fans of Urdog since we first heard them a couple years back. Their shambolic, rambling folky krautrockishness pretty much pushed every weird music button we posess! We raved about both of their full lengths on Secret Eye (one of which is out of print for now) and everyone was so into them we finally managed to track down their first cd-r, which flew out of here and has been out of print ever since. Well, when Andee and Allan were in NYC for CMJ, they ran into one of the Urdogs and he happened to mention that he had a stash of the very last 30 copies of the Urdog demo, we grabbed all of 'em and got 'em here for you, the VERY last copies ever. Here's our review from when we first had this in last September:
Everybody dug the Urdog record we listed a few lists back so when the band got in touch and let us know they had an earlier cd-r, we figured we oughta get that too. And we're glad we did 'cause it's just as good. Another rambling ramshackle collection of propulsive, fuzzed out psychedelic drone / krautrock. Super saturated keyboards, rumbling riffery and tribal drumming. A mix of Jewelled Antler foresty folk, Tarantula Hawk proggy pummel, and lots of druggy psychedelic filigree. Packged in a beautifully silkscreened sleeve with an extensive set of liner notes folded up and pacakged in a little hand stamped envelope. So nice.
Wow. In the span of a couple years, the Numero Group label has become the most exciting reissue label around. From the haunting electronic samba Young Marble Giants worship of Antena, to the long lost soul of the Capsoul label, the missing funk of the Bandit label, the creepy country beauty of Fern Jones to the amazing Yellow Pills power pop combination. Makes us dizzy just thinking about it.
So here we have what might possibly be the first collection of funk-soul-calypso-reggae from Belize. And it's a rollicking joyous non stop party. The influence of American R&B and soul is everywhere, and of course, so is Jamaican reggae. But with any comp like this, it's not the influences, it's what you do with them. So the tracks here run the gamut from, super emotive soulful crooning over warm warbly organs and wavery horns, full on dubbed out reggae rave ups, down and dirty gritty funky workouts, reverb drenched fifties sounding rock and roll, total Shaft / theme from some seventies sitcom slap bass disco funk and on and on. All infused with the spirt of the city and the era in which they were created. Joyful and hopeful, fun and spirited and lively and just a total blast. We've been listening to this nonstop, and everytime we play it in the store, somebody buys one!
Dang, we've got a good one here for followers of the whole "Wooden Guitar" crowd -- Wooden Guitar being the name of another compilation on another label, devoted to guitarists doing acoustic solos in the tradition of John Fahey and the other folky folks on his classic Takoma label roster. That's more or less the idea here too, except that in addition to contemporary flame-keepers of the form like Pelt's Jack Rose and Cul de Sac's Glenn Jones, this comp features quite a few veteran string pickers who were part of the '60s scene -- some of 'em just recently been coaxed out of retirement. There's a few archival cuts dating from decades back, but a lot of this is newly recorded, and much of it is as yet otherwise unreleased, live and studio tracks both. Not all the names are familiar but when you hear 'em you'll want to hear more. The line-up includes the aforementioned Rose and Jones, along with Sandy Bull, John Fahey, Harry Taussig, Harris Newman, Brad Barr, Bern Nix, Steve Mann, Janet Smith, Terry Riley and his son Gyan, Suni McGrath, Bob Hadley, Kaki King, and Max Ochs (whose Fahey-dedicated track "Inspirational Anthem" gives this collection its title, and appears here twice, once in a version recorded in '69 and another from just last year). Moods and techniques vary, from the more old timey to the Eastern-tinged to the jazz-flecked. But it's all totally entrancing, hypnotic, transportational music. Several generations of adventurous American acoustic guitarists are represented here and it's nice to know that this musical movement looks to be going on strong into the future. A fine comp indeed!
BACK IN PRINT! And now augmented with an additional dvd disc!! We just got these in so we haven't been able to watch the DVD yet, but it contains over two hours of rare never before seen performances, interviews, animation and experimental video!
This box (sans the DVD) was originally released five years ago and hasn't been available for some time now. Here's what we said about the audio portion of this, previously:
Following hot on the heels of the Early Modulations compilation from a while back, the OHM box takes the same general idea; a brief and cursory overview of the whole of experimental electronic music, and attempts to give it a little more depth. And it does, to a certain degree. But such a massive undertaking could fill 10 cds, or 20. So what we have here, is 3 cds, 42 tracks, from a who's who of electronic music in the last 32 years: Clara Rockmore, Oliver Messien, John Cage, Edgard Varese, Stockhausen, La Monte Young, Xenakis, Luc Ferrari, Terry Riley, David Tudor, Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Raymond Scott, Brian Eno, Robert Ashley, Bernard Parmegiani and a bunch more. A pretty great assortment, for sure, and definitely the best 20th century/avant electronica primer to come along. The only frustration is that a great number of the pieces are edits, often 5 or 6 minutes from a 20 or 30 minute piece, rendering some slow building gradual shifting works a bit limp. But other than that, this OHM compilation is pretty excellent, packaged impeccably in a triple digipak, housed in a cool silkscreened transparent slipcase, with a fairly well researched book and some spot on musical choices. Definitely a great place to start. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just cut and paste the info into the comments area on the order form, or just email mailorder@aquariusrecords.org. ABSOLUTUS "Ostendit Quam Nihil Sumus" (Goatowarex) cd 14.98 ADAMS, JOHN LUTHER "Strange and Sacred Noise" (Mode) cd 16.98 AGUATO, MATIAS "Are You Really Lost" (Kompakt) cd 15.98 ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS "You Are My Sister" (Secretly Canadian) cd ep 5.98 APPLE, FIONA "Extraordinary Machine" (Epic) dualdisc 19.98 ARPANET "Quantum Transposition" (Rephlex) cd 15.98 ASHES "Hymn To A Grey Sky" (Supernal) cd 15.98 ATHEIST "Elements" (Relapse) cd 13.98 ATHEIST "Piece Of Time" (Relapse) cd 13.98 ATHEIST "Unquestionable Presence" (Relapse) cd 13.98 BAD PLUS "Suspicious Activity?" (Columbia) cd 17.98 BASTRO "Antlers" (Drag City) cd 14.98 BEWITCHED "Unveiling Zion" (Supernal) cd 15.98 BLACK DICE "Smiling Off" (Astralwerks) cd ep/2x12" 8.98/11.98 BLACK TAJ "s/t" (Amish) cd 14.98 BOARDS OF CANADA "Hi-Scores" (Skam) cd ep 8.98 BOARDS OF CANADA "The Campfire Headphase" (Warp) cd/lp 15.98/21.00 BODY, THE "Cop Killer Dead Cops" (Corleone) 7" 3.98 BORBETOMAGUS "Barbed Wire Maggots" (Agaric) cd 15.98 BORFUL TANG "Root" (Snurp) cd 9.98 BROTZMANN, PETER & HAN BENNINK "Schwarzwaldfahrt" (Atavistic / Unheard Music Series) 2cd 21.00 BURR, ANTHONY & SKULI SVERRISON "A Thousand Incidents Arise" (The Worker's Insititute) cd 14.98 BUSH CHEMISTS "Raw Raw Dub" (Roir) cd 15.98 CAGE "Hell's Winter" (Definitive Jux) cd 16.98 CATHEDRAL "The Garden Of Unearthly Delights" (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98 CAVE-IN "Perfect Pitch Black" (Hydra Head) cd 11.98 CHESSMACHINE "Live In Los Angeles" (Line) cd 14.98 CHEVREUIL "Sport" (Sickroom) cd 13.98 CHILDREN OF BODOM "Are You Dead Yet?" (Spinefarm) cd 14.98 CHIODOS "All's Well That Ends Well" (Equal Vision) cd 13.98 CIRCULUS "The Lick On The Tip Of An Envelope Yet To Be Sent" (Candlelight) cd 14.98 CLINE, PATSY "Walking and Dreaming" (Masked Weasel) cd 14.98 CLUSTER & ENO "s/t" (Water) cd 15.98 CODE "Nouveau Gloaming" (Spikefarm) cd 16.98 COFFIN LIDS "Round Midnight" (Bomp) cd 13.98 COHEED AND CAMBRIA "Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Vol.I" (Sony / BMG) cd 16.98 CRYPTOPSY "Once Was Not" (Century Media) cd 16.98 DANGER DOOM "Sofa King / Mince Meat" (Epitaph) 12" 6.98 DAVKA "Live" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 DEPECHE MODE "Playing The Angel" (Sire) cd 17.98 DIAMOND NIGHTS "Popsicle" (Kemado) cd 13.98 DRIVER, TOBY "In the L..L..Library Loft" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 DRONES, THE "Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By" (All Tomorrow's Parties) cd 15.98 DRUDKH "Autumn Aurora" (Supernal) cd 15.98 DRUDKH "Forgotten Legends" (Supernal) cd 15.98 DRUDKH "Lebedynyi Shlyakh" (Supernal) cd 15.98 EARLIES, THE "These Were..." (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98 FIREBALL "Blessed Be" (High Roller) 12" 12.98 FOLKSTORM "Folkmusik" (Old Europa Cafe) cd + 3"cd 24.00 FORREST, JASON "Shamelessly Exciting" (Sonig) cd 14.98 FUZZTONES "LSD 25" (Get Back) cd + dvd 26.00 GRIMFIST "10 Steps To Hell" (Candlelight) cd 15.98 GUERRERO, TOMMY "Year of the Monkey" (Galaxia) cd 10.98 GUITAR WOLF "Golden Black" (Narnack) cd 14.98 HARVESTMAN "Lashing The Rye" (Neurot) cd 14.98 HORSE THE BAND "The Mechanical Hand" (Combat Records) cd 13.98 KANE, JONATHAN "February" (Table Of The Elements) cd/lp 14.98/14.98 KELLY, R. "TP.3 Reloaded" (Jive) cd + dvd 17.98 LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR "Cannibal Massacre" (Southern Lord) 3" cd 8.98 LANGENUS, COLIN "Living With The Rock" (Corleone) cd 13.98 LAPPETITES, THE "Before The Libretto" (Quecksilber) cd 15.98 LARSEN "HMKE" (Important) cd 10.98 LEAF HOUND "Growers Of Mushroom" (Repertoire) cd 19.98 LOGH "A Sunset Panorama" (Hydra Head) cd 14.98 MAGNETOPHONE "The Man Who Ate The Man" (4AD) cd 13.98 MCPHEE, JOE & JOHN SNYDER "Pieces of Light" (Atavistic) cd 14.98 MEN'S RECOVERY PROJECT "The Very Best Of" (5RC) cd 14.98 MERZBOW "Merzbuta" (Important) cd 14.98 MINDFLAYER "Expedition To The Hairier Peaks" (Corleone) cd 11.98 MOONDOG "The Viking of Sixth Avenue" (Honest Jon's) 2lp 27.00 MUGISON "Mugimama Is This Monkey Music?" (Ipecac) cd 16.98 MUM "Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is Ok" (Morr) cd 14.98 MV / EE & THE BUMMER ROAD "We Offer You Guru" (Child Of Microtones) cd 15.98 MY CAT IS AN ALIEN / CHRISTINA CARTER & ANDREW MACGREGOR (Very Friendly) cd 14.98 NADJA "Truth Becomes Death" (Alien 8) cd 14.98 NERVE NET NOISE "Radio Life" (Staalplaat) cd 19.98 NI HAO! "Gorgeous" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 NURSE WITH WOUND "Livin' Fear Of James Last" (Castle) cd 17.98 OCEAN "Here Where Nothing Grows" (Important) cd PARTON, DOLLY "Those Were The Days" (Sugar Hill) cd 17.98 PAUL, SEAN "The Trinity" (VP) cd 17.98 PHAIR, LIZ "Somebody's Miracle" (Capitol) cd 17.98 PINETOP SEVEN "The Night's Bloom" (Barbary Coast) cd 14.98 POISON IDEA "Pajama Party" (Abstract USA) cd 13.98 POISON IDEA "The Early Years" (Abstract USA) cd 13.98 POISON IDEA "War All The Time" (Abstract USA) cd 13.98 ROBERT POLLARD "Music For 'Bubble'" (Needmore Songs) cd 5.98 RUMPELSTILTSKIN GRINDER "Buried In The Front Yard" (Relapse) cd 13.98 SANDERS, PHAROAH "Elevation" (Impulse) cd 13.98 SHANKAR, ANANDA "s/t" (Collector's Choice) cd 14.98 SHEAVY "Republic?" (Candlelight) cd 14.98 SKYGREEN LEOPARDS, THE "Jehovah Surrender" (Jagjaguwar) cd 9.98 SONDHEIM, ALAN / RITUAL ALL 770 "The Songs" (Fire Museum) cd 13.98 STOLTZ, KELLY "The Sun Comes Through" (Sub Pop) cd ep 5.98 SUSUMU YOKOTA & ROTHKO "Distant Sounds Of Summer" (Lo Recordings) cd 14.98 TAAKE "Helnorsk Sbartmetall" (Karisma) cd 14.98 TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI "Action Direct" (Beta-lactam Ring) cd 33.00 TALL DWARVES "Weeville" (Cloud Recordings) cd 14.98 TALL DWARVES "Fork Songs" (Cloud Recordings) cd 14.98 TAPE "Mort Aux Vaches" (Staalplaat) cd 21.00 TRIBES OF NEUROT "Meridian" (Neurot) cd 14.98 TURN ME ON DEAD MAN "Technicolourmother" (Galaxy Groove) cd 11.98 UP-TIGHT & MAKOTO KAWABATA "s/t" (Galactic Zoo) cd 14.98 V/A "For A Decade Of Sin: 11 Years Of Bloodshot Records" (Bloodshot) 2cd V/A "Maan Matoset" (Pohjoisten Kukkaisten Aanet) cd 14.98 V/A "This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles' Rubber Soul" (Razor & Tie) cd 17.98 V/A "Time Machine: A Vertigo Retrospective" (Vertigo) 3cd 38.00 VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR "H To He Who Am The Only One" (EMI) cd 15.98 VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR "Pawn Hearts" (EMI) cd 15.98 VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" (EMI) cd 15.98 VOIVOD "DVOD 1" (Music Video Distributors) dvd 14.98 VOLTAGE "Building The Bas Castle 1" (Flameshovel) cd 13.98 WU-TANG "Think Differently Music: Wu-Tang Meets The Indie Culture" (Babygrande) cd 16.98 YOUNG BLEED "Rise Thru Da Ranks" (West Coast Mafia) cd 16.98 YURA YURA TEIKOKU "na.ma.shi.bi.re.na.ma.me.ma.i" (Mesh-Key) cd 11.98 ZOMBI "The Zombi Anthology" (VCO) cd 14.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
Compilations of long-lost '60s and '70s psych/pop/rock gems dug up from the far corners of the world by dedicated crate-digging record collectors are always considered a good thing here at AQ. We can just point to the Hava Narghile, Cambodian Rocks, Love Peace & Poetry and Thai Beat comps for some easy examples. But while we've been stoked on all sorts of stuff from Turkey, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, South Africa, and elsewhere, there's always room for more, and for new unexplored territories to freak out about. For instance, what about Welsh psych/prog/folk??? Aha, that's what Welsh Rare Beat is devoted to, as you've already surmised. The 25 tracks here, all of 'em pretty fantastic, were selected from the vaults of the home-grown Welsh indie record label Sain, which could easily be (as this comp argues) the coolest record label you've never heard of before. As the liner notes put it: "You like prog-rock with blueprint trip-hop beats? So did Sain. You like ethereal girl groups with mystical acid folk overtones? So did Sain. You like psychedelic rock operas based on druidism and witchcraft? So did Sain..." And they're not kidding. Psyche-Celtic hoe-downs, dreamy folk singing, Cymru pride protest rock, and incredible grooves abound. These songs are all sung in Welsh (a pleasing tongue we trust you'll find), and due to the language barrier (and doubtless related cultural/political issues) these artists are pretty much unknown outside their own land, despite being just as good as a lot of better known folks from elsewhere in the UK. Really, looking at the names here, we'd only ever heard of Meic Stevens before. Never Bran, Heather Jones, Endaf Emlyn, Y Tebot Piws, or Yr Atgyfodiad, let alone Y Dyniadon Ynfyd Hirfelyn Tesog! But that's what's so great about discs like this, getting turned on to the denizens of a whole new realm of record-collector fantasy. The cd booklet helps mightily in that department, featuring a great deal of text -- there's very detailed track-by-track info plus a lengthy essay that treats this music scene in a political/historical context. VERY thorough indeed. And it even includes an annotated map of Wales. This really well put-together labor of love was compiled by Andy Votel (so recently responsible for the fab Vertigo Mixed comp), Dom Thomas, and Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals who of course hail from Wales, and is released on the same label, Finders Keepers, that also brought us those equally obscure and awesome Jean Claude Vannier and Yamasuki discs.
Although this band is made up of Jon Langford, Steve Goulding, Alan Doughty, Deano, Tracey Dear, and Marc Durnate... aka members of Mekons, Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Graham Parker & The Rumour, Jesus Jones, Dollar Store, Wreck and KMFDM (!), more that a few folks around here have commented about just how much this actually sounds like ol' AQ faves Uncle Tupelo. It really does!! The contrasting male lead vocals even resemble those of U.T.'s Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar. Midway through the proceedings though they veer towards Social Distortion goes honky tonk (about which we're not quite sure how feel). Either way, we're sure some stiff shots of whisky, a string of broken hearts and many pairs of well-worn cowboy boots were involved.
You love music or you wouldn't be reading our list, and it's probably pretty likely that you love the records that music comes on, too. (Or used to, and still does, some of the time). Well then Wax Poetics is the magazine for you. Lots of in-depth reading here on subjects that could be of interest to anyone into DJ/vinyl culture, this issue featuring stuff on David Axelrod, Mulatu of Ethiopia, Danger Doom, Blowfly, Jazzy Jay, early '80s Bronx hip-hop club Disco Fever, '70s Brooklyn Afro-jazz organization the East, and lots more. And there's plenty of what we especially love: full-color reproductions of record covers to look at, all set to stoke the imagination of your ears. And although it says Hip-Hop, Jazz, Funk, & Soul on the cover, that doesn't stop 'em from, for instance, sneaking in a Charalambides album amidst considerations of reggae, rap, and soul/gospel classics.
We've always wanted to list this, it's been one of our favorite records for years, always on the iPod, and never far from the stereos of those of us into the DOOOOM. This reissue first came out way back in 1999, but it hasn't been easy to get lately, so when we found a distro that had a bunch we jumped on 'em. And it's especially timely now considering the renewed interest in all things doomy and sludgy. We bet there's even some folks out there who don't realize there was any doom pre- Corrupted / Boris / Earth / SUNNO))). Well let's go all the way back to the very early nineties, head out to Long Island and re-discover the pummelling majesty of the mighty Winter. There's not a doom band worth its stripes who wouldn't cite Winter as an influence, and one listen proves why. Crusty, downtuned sludge metal, but unlike the current crop of ultra doomsters, Winter's roots were in much more traditional thrash and doom metal as well as crusty punk. Often described as a slowed down Celtic Frost, due in no small part to the vocal delivery, Winter managed to mix elements of Black Sabbath (obviously, what doom band doesn't), Hellhammer, diSEMBOWELMENT and UK political crust band Doom into a slithery, creeping, suffocatingly dense blast of chugging guitar, pounding drums and creepy growled vocals. On closser listening their are also strange bits of organ and found sounds and bizarre vocal snippets scattered throughout and buried here and there. There are even guitar solos!! But no normal solos, no these are all spikey and twisted and serpentine, chaotic squalls of prickly squealing freakout that fit perfectly into Winter's desolate doomscapes. And speaking of guitar, this reissue also contains Winter's Eternal Frost ep, which features the bizarre (and prescient, considering the current state of ambient drone doom metal) bonus track "Manifestations 1", an extended psychedelic soundscape constructed wholly from guitar and manipulated effects. So cool. The other thing worth mentioning is the lyrics, which at the time got them a lot of attention / flak, quite cryptic for sure, but they seem to focus on saving the environment, anti-pollution, anti-technology, ecological awareness (Exit-13 anyone?) displaying their crusty roots there for sure! Fans of the new crop of doom and ultra doom would do well to take a peek at a band who truly was ahead of their time, a band who helped lay the groundwork for the sonic pummelling provided to you on a daily basis by bands like Skepticism, Esoteric, Rigor Sardonicous, Moss, Bunkur, and even Electric Wizard and Sleep, who might not even exist were it not for Winter.
Wolf Parade's Apologies To The Queen Mary are far from prim and proper. Yes, they are Canadian, so they're prolly quite polite, but this band's debut album is not about sitting with your hands folded in your lap, timidly tapping your toe. Just get a load of those ultra punchy hooks and super emotive vocals! They're meant for movin'. Wolf Parade is like a super pop incarnation of fellow Canucks Arcade Fire with a youthful David Bowie singing the lead vocals. Definitely the flavour of the day. Sound yummy to you?
... And another Wooden Wand release materializes here at AQ. To be completely frank, we've dug each one so far! So how does Sunset Sleeves measure up? Quite wonderfully, thank you very much. Imagine faint, drifting psych-folk abstractions performed by a band of drowsy gypsies. Nice! 'Nuf said!
Recorded at the same time as the recently listed (and now out of print) collaboration between the YS, Axolotl and Gerritt, this disc treads much of the same sonic space, glistening high end feedback, distant crumbling drones, smears of sparkling glitchery, burbling underwater cd skipping, grinding industrial whir. Not jagged or harsh at all, not what you would expect from these noiseniks. Quite dreamy and soothing, all the harsh bits have the edges smoothed into a slow flowing dronee bliss-scape. Comes with a photocopied copy of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Vietnam speech and comes in a gorgeous hand painted sleeve. As with all Jyrk cd-r's it seems, SUPER LIMITED, already out of print, and we have the last 30. So again, act fast if you want one of these. Once they are gone they are gone for good.
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